Opinion: The UFC’s Old Epidemic

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of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of
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Evolve Media.

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Even for a sport as reliably strange as ours, the past week was a
particularly bizarre one. Between the bookends of two excellent
fight cards in UFC
217 and
UFC Fight Night 120, a month’s worth of weird went down. Yet
aside from Conor
McGregor’s shenanigans at Bellator
187, a common theme permeated the goings on of the last seven
days: the repercussions of getting old in the fight game, or, as I
like to call it, MMAging.

Bad portmanteau aside, there’s a difference between getting old in
regular life and getting old as a professional fighter. It’s not so
much a defined age -- though it often is that, too -- as it is an
accumulation of fight-related erosion. There are fighters like
Mark
Hunt, who, at age 43, is immediately acknowledged as old. Then
there are fighters like Dominick
Cruz.

“The Dominator” is only 32, but he’s an old 32. He has been
fighting professionally for nearly 13 years and has done so at the
highest levels for a decade. Despite using a style that
specifically eschews taking shots from opponents, he suffers from
another side effect of the fight game: injuries. He added to his
storied run of getting sidelined in the gym by suffering a broken
arm in training camp, causing him to drop out of his scheduled UFC
219 bout against Jimmie
Rivera. Cruz is probably the greatest bantamweight of all-time
and still a relevant force in the division, but his window at the
top appears to be narrowing.

The injury bug also struck Frankie
Edgar, who pulled out of his UFC 218 title shot against
Max
Holloway with an undisclosed injury. His career timeline is
similar to Cruz’s: pro debut in 2005, Zuffa debut in 2007. They
even became champions in the same year. Despite being four years
older than Cruz, Edgar has remained relatively injury-free; the
only major setback prior to this one was when he suffered a pair of
broken ribs before his scheduled title defense at UFC 130 back in
2011. “The Answer” has not shown any signs of slowing down -- he
did hand young blood Yair
Rodriguez a ferocious whooping just six months ago -- but at 36
and with the featherweight talent on its way up, his time is
ticking, as well. It’s probably worth mentioning that Jose Aldo, the
greatest featherweight ever, in addition to being the oldest
31-year-old ever, will replace Edgar.

Anderson
Silva, the 42-year-old former middleweight king was pulled from
his upcoming fight, too, but not because his aging body cracked in
the gym. He won’t be making his Chinese debut because he apparently
took a detour to Thailand for “dick pills” again, or at least
that’s what we can assume until the next excuse is specified. “The
Spider” failed an out-of-competition drug test from Oct. 26, and
while it’s not definitive proof that he was on the juice again,
it’s hard not to suspect it. I don’t blame him, though. The rigors
of MMA are such that it’s borderline inhumane to not let athletes
use PEDs, especially at Silva’s age. The silver lining here is that
the United States Anti-Doping Agency likely saved him from yet
another ignominious loss. In a ridiculous twist, another former
middleweight champ, the recently deposed Michael
Bisping, will stand in Silva’s stead to face Kelvin
Gastelum. Three weeks after getting dropped and taking 41
significant strikes to the dome, the 38-year-old will be back in
action against a heavy-hitting contender who has knocked out two of
his last three opponents.

Yet for all these manifestations of the curse of aging, none was
more poignant than the fight between Diego
Sanchez and Matt Brown at
UFC Fight Night “Poirier vs. Pettis” on Saturday in Norfolk,
Virginia. While it was Brown who talked of retirement leading up to
the event, Sanchez should be the one talking about it now. The
first-ever winner of “The Ultimate Fighter” spent the first 11
years of his UFC career with an impenetrably iron chin but now has
suffered three vicious first-round knockouts in the last 14 months.
After the fight, Sanchez assured crowds that he still had fight in
him, to little jubilation. That statement is true, which is exactly
why it’s problematic. As for Brown, despite his spectacular and
probably illegal finishing move, he should still consider moving on
to the next phase of his career. Sanchez was a particularly
favorable matchup, which can distract from the fact that Brown had
gone 1-4 in the last two years and that his previous two fights
were crushing knockout losses. Sanchez and Brown are 35 and 36
years old, respectively, with a combined 51 UFC fights between
them. If they can bow out before taking any more brain damage, why
wouldn’t they?

It brings me no joy to suggest retirement for either of them.
Sanchez and Brown have been two of the
Ultimate Fighting Championship’s most dependably entertaining
action fighters for a while now, and their presence will be sorely
missed whenever they decide to hang it up for good. Neither of them
has anything left to prove, however, and it’s becoming increasingly
apparent that they won’t be making any more title runs. More than
anything, their fight proves that the only thing harder than
retiring on a loss is retiring on a win.

There’s no denying the warrior spirit of all of these old-timers.
It’s what we’ve come to admire about many of them, and MMA rewards
that persona more than any other sport. Still, at some point, the
warrior mentality becomes just that -- a mentality, completely
divorced from the physical realities of fighting. Eventually, it’s
best to let legacy stay in the past and build a new one in the
coach’s corner, in the commentary booth or on the couch.

Hailing from Kailua, Hawai’i, Eric Stinton has been contributing
to Sherdog since 2014. He received his BFA in Creative Writing from
Chapman University and graduate degree in Special Education from
University of Hawai’i. He is an occasional columnist for Honolulu
Civil Beat, and his work has also appeared in The Classical. You
can find his writing at ericstinton.com. He currently lives in Seoul with his
fiancé and dachshund.